I have yet to assemble what could be called a ‘white paper’ on deaf ministry, but here are a few key points.
Insights into the Deaf Community, American Sign Language, and Interpreting. This includes perspectives on the D/deaf experience in America and some attempt at helping audio-centric people understand a visual-centric world. Interpreting students are hereby encouraged to understand their clients, not only the mechanics of working between two languages.
We Are Deaf
A captioned introduction to the Deaf Community, worldwide, produced by DeafNation. Deaf people from 27 different countries are represented. We who know God and their language must step forward and make introductions – it is our prime directive.
Context is Everything
So much for Horrible Homonyms in ASL, there are actually some signs that are exactly the same yet carry different meanings depending entirely on context. Not that English is immune to such things… Is a plate a flat food dish, the starting/ending base in a ball diamond, or a component in a set of dentures? …
ASL Sign Components
Signs have the following definable components: The one undeclared component that makes a huge difference is Context… The sign I learned as METAL is used by some folks up here to mean TRASH. LETTUCE and TRASH seem to be the same (trash salad, anyone?), and the sign I learned as PURSE is commonly used to …
Through Your Child’s Eyes: American Sign Language
I wish this existed, and I had known about it, 30 years ago… but the information is available now, we’ll go with that. See also: See What I’m Saying, the music video from the documentary by the same title.